Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) with simultaneous multivolume acquisition

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9897675-B2
Application number	US-201514711879-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 14, 2015
Priority date	May 28, 2014
Publication date	Feb 20, 2018
Grant date	Feb 20, 2018

Abstract

Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) with simultaneous multivolume acquisition (SMVA) is described. One example nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) apparatus includes an NMR logic that repetitively and variably samples (k, t, E) spaces associated with different volumes (e.g., slices) in an object to simultaneously acquire sets of NMR signals that are associated with different points in the (k, t, E) spaces. Sampling is performed with t and/or E varying in a non-constant way. The NMR apparatus may also include a signal logic that produces an NMR signal evolution from the NMR signals and compares the NMR signal evolution to reference signal evolutions. Since different volumes are excited differently, resulting signal evolutions can be acquired simultaneously from the different volumes and NMR parameters may be simultaneously determined for the multiple volumes, which reduces acquisition time and parameter map creation time.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for creating a parameter map or an image from data acquired by controlling a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) apparatus to perform magnetic resonance fingerprinting with simultaneous multivolume acquisition (MRF-SMVA), comprising:
controlling the MRI apparatus to create a first nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) excitation in a first volume in a sample according to a first set of magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) parameters;
controlling the MRI apparatus to create a second, different NMR excitation in a second volume in the sample according to a second set of MRF parameters;
controlling the MRI apparatus to acquire first NMR signals produced by the first volume in response to the first NMR excitation;
producing a first signal evolution from the first NMR signals, the first signal evolution having complex values with an arbitrary phase relationship;
controlling the MRI apparatus to acquire second NMR signals produced by the second volume in response to the second NMR excitation;
producing a second signal evolution from the second NMR signals, the second signal evolution having complex values with an arbitrary phase relationship;
simultaneously determining two or more first quantitative magnetic resonance (MR) parameters for a portion of the first volume based on a comparison of the first signal evolution to one or more known signal evolutions;
simultaneously determining two or more second quantitative MR parameters for a portion of the second volume based on a comparison of the second signal evolution to one or more known signal evolutions; and
producing the parameter map or the image based, at least in part, on the two or more first quantitative MR parameters or based, at least in part, on the two or more second quantitative parameters,
where the first NMR excitation and the second NMR excitation are active simultaneously, and
where the first NMR signals and the second NMR signals are acquired simultaneously.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising acquiring the first NMR signals and the second NMR signals simultaneously as discrete signals.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising independently comparing the first signal evolution and the second signal evolution to the one or more known signal evolutions.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising acquiring the first NMR signals and the second NMR signals simultaneously as a mixed signal, where the first signal evolution and the second signal evolution are combined as a mixed signal evolution.

5. The method of claim 4 , comprising comparing the mixed signal evolution to the one or more known signal evolutions.

6. The method of claim 4 , comprising separating the mixed signal into the first signal evolution and the second signal evolution before determining the two or more quantitative MR parameters for the portion of the first volume and before determining the two or more quantitative MR parameters for the portion of the second volume.

7. The method of claim 6 , comprising individually comparing the first signal evolution and the second signal evolution to the one or more known signal evolutions.

8. The method of claim 4 , comprising separating the mixed signal by performing a generalized auto-calibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA) operation on the mixed signal, by performing a slice generalized auto-calibrating partially parallel acquisition (slice-GRAPPA) operation on the mixed signal, or by performing a generalized auto-calibrating parallel acquisition (GRAPPA) operator (GROG) slice operation on the mixed signal.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising controlling the MRI apparatus to produce the first NMR excitation and the second NMR excitation according to a Fast-Imaging with Steady-state Precession FISP-MRF pulse sequence or an inversion recovery FISP (IR TrueFISP) pulse sequence.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising controlling the MRI apparatus to produce the first NMR excitation and the second NMR excitation according to a balanced steady state free precession (bSSFP) MRF pulse sequence.

11. The method of claim 1 , where the first set of MRF parameters and the second set of MRF parameters are selected to cause the first signal evolution and the second signal evolution to be correlated less than a threshold amount.

12. The method of claim 1 , where the two or more quantitative MR parameters include T1, T2, M0, and proton density, T1 being spin-lattice relaxation, T2 being spin-spin relaxation, and M0 being initial magnetization.

13. The method of claim 1 , where the first set of MRF parameters and the second set of MRF parameters are selected to produce:
a different flip angle train in the first NMR excitation and the second NMR excitation,
different phases in a flip angle train in the first NMR excitation and the second NMR excitation, or
different magnitudes in a flip angle train in the first NMR excitation and the second NMR excitation.

14. The method of claim 1 ,
where the first volume is a slice,
where the second volume is a slice, and
where the first set of MRF parameters and the second set of MRF parameters are selected to cause different gradients to be applied to the first slice and to the second slice.

15. The method of claim 14 , where causing the different gradients to be applied to the first slice and to the second slice includes causing different slice select gradients to be applied to the first slice and to the second slice.

16. The method of claim 15 , comprising controlling the different slice select gradients to differ before, during, or after acquiring the first NMR signals and the second NMR signals.

17. The method of claim 16 , where the different slice select gradients are configured to cause a phase shift between the first slice and the second slice.

18. The method of claim 17 , where the phase shift is configured to:
spatially shift the first slice and the second slice relative to each other in an image field-of-view,
produce spatial blurring in at least one of the first slice or the second slice, or
produce a spatial distortion in at least one of the first slice or the second slice.

19. The method of claim 18 , comprising controlling the different slice select gradients to match at least one readout gradient applied during acquisition of the first NMR signals or acquisition of the second NMR signals, where the at least one readout gradient is applied in a direction different than the different slice select gradients.

20. The method of claim 19 ,
where the at least one readout gradient comprises a first readout gradient applied in a first direction orthogonal to the slice-encoding direction and a second readout gradient applied in a second direction orthogonal to the slice-encoding direction, and
where the magnetic gradient applied along the slice-encoding direction matches the at least one readout gradient by weighting a combination of the first readout gradient and the second readout gradient.

21. The method of claim 20 , where the combination of the first readout gradient and the second readout gradient is an addition of the first readout gradient and the second readout gradient.

22. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
controlling the MRI apparatus to create a first single volume NMR excitation in the first volume according to the first set of NMR parameters;
controlling the MRI apparatus to acquire a first single volume set of NMR signals produced by the first volume in response to the first single volume NMR excitation;
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Assignees

• Univ Case Western Reserve
• Massachusetts Gen Hospital

Inventors

• Setsompop Kawin
• Griswold Mark
• Ye Huihui
• Wald Lawrence
• Ma Dan
• Jiang Yun

Classifications

• G01R33/4824

  using a non-Cartesian trajectory · CPC title

• G01R33/5613

  Generating steady state signals, e.g. low flip angle sequences [FLASH] · CPC title

• G01R33/50

  based on the determination of relaxation times {, e.g. T1 measurement by IR sequences; T2 measurement by multiple-echo sequences} · CPC title

• G01R33/4828 Primary

  Resolving the MR signals of different chemical species, e.g. water-fat imaging · CPC title

• G01R33/5611

  Parallel magnetic resonance imaging, e.g. sensitivity encoding [SENSE], simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics [SMASH], unaliasing by Fourier encoding of the overlaps using the temporal dimension [UNFOLD], k-t-broad-use linear acquisition speed-up technique [k-t-BLAST], k-t-SENSE (structural details of arrays of sub-coils G01R33/3415) · CPC title